Serpierite

Item Description

Serpierite was named in 1881 after Giovanni Battista Serpieri who was an Italian mining entrepreneur, and a developer of mines in the Lavrion District, Attiki, Greece. This hydrated calcium copper zinc sulfate is actually part of the Devilline Group, and is the Ca-analogue of Aldridgeite. This piece is from the Genna zinc smelter slag locality in Letmathe in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. The piece hosts soft blue-green colored Serpierite coating botryoidal Limonite. Make no mistake, this is a micro specimen, and is best seen under magnification, but still a cool example of these rarely seen pieces. Many rare to uncommon secondary lead and zinc minerals have been recovered from the slag dumps. The smelter was built in 1886 and this is probably older material. From the collection of Colin Manlove.